Re: "Salad".This is really, really sweet, with neither the fresh succulence nor the sour acidity (nor even some herbal bitterness) that would nudge it, IMO, into the Salad category.

Raw julienned/shredded carrots can be served intensely sweet, for instance, as a carrot salad - precisely because they are raw and crunchy. The raisins one often finds in it, and the sugar-load in the dressing, are often offset by a major amount of vinegar.Cole slaw, likewise.

If the sweet potato dish were served warm, it'd be a side dish, right? And even then, that sweetness would demand Some Game-y Meat to justify choosing it as a side dish, the way I'm reading it, and would require the accompaniment of those other (bitter, succulent, acidic) elements in another side dish/relish/salad, to balance the course.

With what do you serve it? At what meal? Curious as to how Southerners serve this so as to consider it a salad.

D'Adamo proponent since 1997dadamo Blogger and Forum participant since 2005Cyber-Newbie, as of 2004

Re: "Salad".This is really, really sweet, with neither the fresh succulence nor the sour acidity (nor even some herbal bitterness) that would nudge it, IMO, into the Salad category.

Raw julienned/shredded carrots can be served intensely sweet, for instance, as a carrot salad - precisely because they are raw and crunchy. The raisins one often finds in it, and the sugar-load in the dressing, are often offset by a major amount of vinegar.Cole slaw, likewise.

If the sweet potato dish were served warm, it'd be a side dish, right? And even then, that sweetness would demand Some Game-y Meat to justify choosing it as a side dish, the way I'm reading it, and would require the accompaniment of those other (bitter, succulent, acidic) elements in another side dish/relish/salad, to balance the course.

With what do you serve it? At what meal? Curious as to how Southerners serve this so as to consider it a salad.

I has cumin, lime juice, orange juice, and green onion. I think that qualifies as the acidic and bitter elements.As I was saying I might consider adding finely diced jalapeno to it The recipe was in the paper a day or 2 before I posted it so I haven't actually used it yet. Potato salad is typically used with bbq as is coleslaw. I imagine most southern cooks would serve it with pork either roasted or bbqed but sweet potatos are served with whatever is availible in the small farms my parents grew up on. It would make a great alternative to the common marshmallow topped oversweetened mashed sweet potato caserole at Thanksgiving, only 2 tablespoons of maple syrup in the whole dish.Southern farm or rural cooking usually relegates sweet potatos to a sidedish. As a kid I've had them just baked whole with a little butter on top, sliced and fried as chips, mashed with varying amounts of sugar or molasses added, shredded with a little flour and made into pancakes, pies, placed around a ham that is roasting, cut up and baked with butter and pineapple juice and brown sugar. As an adult I've made chipolte scalloped sweet potatos and sweet potatos sauteed with peppers and onions, a dish of alternating layersof apple and sweet potato with cream and pepper and thyme. A salad is usually served cold with some type of dressing that contains oil and an acid like mayo and dill pickles and onions in a regular potato salad.

With what do you serve it? At what meal? Curious as to how Southerners serve this so as to consider it a salad.

It would be delicious with collards, turnip greens, mustard, kale, etc., etc.. I don't see any difference in calling this dish a salad and calling mixed fruit a salad, which some people do. There are meat salads of all kinds, so what is the big deal?

I don't get where this dish is all that sweet, either, when you divide it into twelve servings. We all are responsible for subbing recipes to suit our own fancies and needs. All this is splitting hairs in my opinion. Especially when I read about people chomping down on things much worse. And getting sick. And posting about it. And feeling terrible for days..... This dish wouldn't make me feel bad at all like the mess I ate at that Italian restaurant did yesterday. Wow! But I took that old Italian bull by the horns and wiped it off the intestinal map in a little over twenty-four hours, learning a serious lesson in the meantime that I didn't need at all. I didn't eat a bite of sugar there, either.

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." -- Benjamin Franklin

It would be delicious with collards, turnip greens, mustard, kale, etc., etc.. I don't see any difference in calling this dish a salad and calling mixed fruit a salad, which some people do. There are meat salads of all kinds, so what is the big deal?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaSalad is a non-runny, ready-to-eat dish made of heterogeneous ingredients in a wet or once wet base served chilled or at a moderate temperature.......•Dessert salads, sweet versions often containing fruit, gelatin and/or whipped cream

I has cumin, lime juice, orange juice, and green onion. I think that qualifies as the acidic and bitter elements.As I was saying I might consider adding finely diced jalapeno to it The recipe was in the paper a day or 2 before I posted it so I haven't actually used it yet. Potato salad is typically used with bbq as is coleslaw. I imagine most southern cooks would serve it with pork either roasted or bbqed but sweet potatos are served with whatever is availible in the small farms my parents grew up on. It would make a great alternative to the common marshmallow topped oversweetened mashed sweet potato caserole at Thanksgiving, only 2 tablespoons of maple syrup in the whole dish.Southern farm or rural cooking usually relegates sweet potatos to a sidedish. As a kid I've had them just baked whole with a little butter on top, sliced and fried as chips, mashed with varying amounts of sugar or molasses added, shredded with a little flour and made into pancakes, pies, placed around a ham that is roasting, cut up and baked with butter and pineapple juice and brown sugar. As an adult I've made chipolte scalloped sweet potatos and sweet potatos sauteed with peppers and onions, a dish of alternating layersof apple and sweet potato with cream and pepper and thyme. A salad is usually served cold with some type of dressing that contains oil and an acid like mayo and dill pickles and onions in a regular potato salad.

You certainly know your sweet potatoes, gcg!Yeah, I have a feeling that when you do actually fix this, Dr. gcg will be on duty to tweak and refine, jalapeños and far more lime juice at the ready - maybe take a scalpel to those cranberries, except as that Thanksgivng "side dish" (which is, yes, what I'd call it)... Until then, I might like it as a topping for cheesecake!

D'Adamo proponent since 1997dadamo Blogger and Forum participant since 2005Cyber-Newbie, as of 2004

It reads like a salad recipe to me. Anyone can add or detract whatever amount of dried cranberries, sweetener, etc they like. You don't want it sweet--don't make it sweet. I think it sounds good the way it is, though I might use dried cherries in place of the cranberries.

Sounds really interesting, however, I do have to agree with Ruthie that, for me personally, I have a "thing" about sweet sweet potato recipes--I vastly prefer savory ones. Sweet potatoes are already sweet enough, to me, and they cry out for SAVORY spices/accompaniment. That said, this particular salad sounds interesting for those who do like sweet sweet potato recipes, and a definite improvement over the typical sickly sweet sweet potato dish with the marshmallow topping. The cumin and lime, for example, will contrast with, cut, and add complexity to the sweetness of the sweet potato and give the dish a lot of depth. The green onion will also marry well with it. Sounds very interesting, though possibly with too many sweet elements for this O nonnie Gatherer--good find, gcg!

edited to add: And I would have to add some SEA SALT at some point. I would just have to. I'm an O.

"If you are on one of Dr. D's diets and it isn't joyful, you aren't doing it right."- moi

Good luck finding the maple syrup. It looks like I'm going to have to pay through the nose at the Health Food Store. I've checked all 3 grocery stores in town. BTW try to find syrup that isn't corn based, even the "no HFCS syrup" still has regular corn syrup.

Maple syrup (pure maple syrup) is terribly, terribly expensive anymore, sadly. You could go with a dark raw honey or dark agave (though agave doesn't have the depth/complexity of maple, whereas depending on the honey you get you might be able to get a reasonable facsimile).

"If you are on one of Dr. D's diets and it isn't joyful, you aren't doing it right."- moi

Good luck finding the maple syrup. It looks like I'm going to have to pay through the nose at the Health Food Store. I've checked all 3 grocery stores in town. BTW try to find syrup that isn't corn based, even the "no HFCS syrup" still has regular corn syrup.

I was a little confused by this - maybe it's a local phenomenon where you are.

Have you looked at, for instance, Amazon's offerings?Once you key in all your sorting preferences, such as, say, Organic, there's quite a selection. When I key in "Grade A Maple Syrup", Anderson's Pure Grade A comes up at the top, for $18/quart, delivered. Hidden Springs Organic is $20/qt delivered, etc...

I did the same for Organic Cold-Pressed EVOO and found some comparable prices. Do you have trouble finding affordable organic cold-pressed EVOO as well? One has always had to pay a premium for premium products, but there is a wide spectrum of suppliers and prices.

If you're comparing pure maple syrup to other sorts of syrup, there has always been a great difference in price. But comparing it with itself over time, it doesn't seem to be really unreasonable or anything.

Instead of hocking your left leg for a pint, see if you can find one online for $12 - or even $10...

D'Adamo proponent since 1997dadamo Blogger and Forum participant since 2005Cyber-Newbie, as of 2004

I think these are very, very reasonable prices.Maybe you should consider ordering smaller bottles of a few brands until you find a brand you fancy above all, and then start ordering these larger, economical amounts directly from the manufacturer.Grade A Vermont maple syrup at 50¢ or less per ounce? Terrific!

D'Adamo proponent since 1997dadamo Blogger and Forum participant since 2005Cyber-Newbie, as of 2004

I have some savory sweet potato recipes but of course they are loaded with dairy

P.S. How's a'come all your savory sweet potato recipes involve dairy? Are they, like, mashed sweet potato type casserole deals? How come people are not hip to simply cutting up the sweet potatos, rolling 'em around in a little olive oil, putting your fave savory spices on 'em (such as garlic, curry, sea salt, onion powder, adobo seasoning, whatEVAH), and popping 'em in the oven on a cookie sheet until FAB? Or, a simple dinner of (I won't say chicken, as this thread is rife with B's **) your fave meat, cut up sweet potato and cut up onion, all baked (or roasted--whatever the precise term is--Brighid will kill me if I get it wrong!) together at 350-ish for however long it takes the meat to get done, by which point the sweet potatoes will have absorbed all that lovely FAT (I love being an O non!) and carmelized beautifully. Now THAT is how ya make a sweet potater shine! Diary be darned! (Though one avoid I do eat is non-fat plain yogurt in many dressings and sauces, and it is good on sweet potato, I must say!)

"If you are on one of Dr. D's diets and it isn't joyful, you aren't doing it right."- moi

How come people are not hip to simply cutting up the sweet potatos, rolling 'em around in a little olive oil, putting your fave savory spices on 'em (such as garlic, curry, sea salt, onion powder, adobo seasoning, whatEVAH), and popping 'em in the oven on a cookie sheet until FAB? Or, a simple dinner of (I won't say chicken, as this thread is rife with B's **) your fave meat, cut up sweet potato and cut up onion, all baked (or roasted--whatever the precise term is--Brighid will kill me if I get it wrong!) together at 350-ish for however long it takes the meat to get done, by which point the sweet potatoes will have absorbed all that lovely FAT (I love being an O non!) and carmelized beautifully. Now THAT is how ya make a sweet potater shine! Diary be darned!

Sweet potatoes (especially the garnets) are good any way you prepare them. When I was in Louisiana visiting my son's family the local restaurants served them with butter and brown sugar - yum.I make them for the Jewish holidays a couple of different ways - tzimmes with prunes and carrots and seasonings. The prunes add a wonderful flavor.

My father's family came from Lithuania, and potatoes & prunes zimmes is supposedly a traditional Lithuanian dish, so when my mother - a Jewish Hungarian - married him, she learnt to cook potatoes this way and mastered it. As kids we used to enjoy this lovely dish every Shabbat evening.

GCG is a B/Nomad. He's allowed dairy. Hence, recipes with dairy in them.

I'm finding as long as I use cultured dairy with no gums or stabilizers, occasional tastings are okay and don't make me tired or cause inflammation.

Maple syrup costs a fortune here too. Could be that last year's bad weather caused problems.

Oh, I know gcg is allowed dairy (the lucky duck!), I'm just saying there are plenty of great savory ways of getting one's sweet potato on that don't involve dairy. btw, I have found the same as you: that I can use plain yogurt, for example, with no problem. As an aside, with most things, I can't stand the "fat-free" or even low-fat versions, but with yogurt, I actually PREFER the non-fat. I get organic, non-fat plain yogurt and use it primarily in salad dressing and sauces. And tonight, I am actually going to have a very light supper consisting of just a smoothie made of non-fat yogurt, fresh pineapple, and pineapple juice. Don't worry, I had protein at breakfast. I'm doing a little "diet within a diet" as I'm calling it, where I'm trying (and succeeding, wu HUUU) to jumpstart my stalled weight loss (I only have a few more lbs to go, come on, bod!) by, dare I say it, eating less. I was loathe to do that, and just kept trying to up my exercise and up my exercise, but after a year of plateauing, I'm now going this route: instead of dinner, every other day I'm having either a smoothie, homemade fruit gelatin (using plain, organic beef gelatin, don't worry, peeps!), or just fruit (usually a gigantic piece of watermelon). I am now a scant few lbs from where I want to be. I was a tad nervous about going the "diet" route (i.e., eating less, as I like how i was eating!), because I do NOT want to get myself into a deprived state where my brain chemistry gets out of balance and I start craving. But, so far, so good. I'm being very mindful about it. I'm ensuring I get enough protein, etc., on days when I do this. ANYWAY, sorry, gcg, I'm digressing massively from the topic: yep, I am with Briggie and find that a little dairy doesn't bother me. All I ever have on a regular basis is the non-fat yogurt and, occasionally, a little pure cheese of some sort (cheddar, usually--if I could get some good ROQUEFORT up in hea', I wouldn't be averse!).

Roquefort would go great on sweet potato. But then, roquefort would go great on ANYTHING. Just hook me up to an intravenous drip and let 'er flow, baby! ( Eeew, on second thought, eating it sounds infinitely better!)

"If you are on one of Dr. D's diets and it isn't joyful, you aren't doing it right."- moi

Sweet potatoes (especially the garnets) are good any way you prepare them. When I was in Louisiana visiting my son's family the local restaurants served them with butter and brown sugar - yum.I make them for the Jewish holidays a couple of different ways - tzimmes with prunes and carrots and seasonings. The prunes add a wonderful flavor.

See, I don't like 'em with brown sugar--two sweets mushed together like that are too sweet, imho (unless we are talking sweet potater pie, somehow it is different then *lol*). Case in point: I went to Outback Steakhouse one time and was HORRIFED when, upon me ordering a sweet potato to go with my steak instead of a white potato, and ASSUMING that, since I was ordering it as a side for my steak, they would just prepare it like a baked potato, it came out absolutely smothered in brown sugar or possibly molasses or SOMETHING--it was hard to tell because it also had about a 6-inch TOWER of whipped cream on it and cinnamon or SOMETHING on top of that. I went into shock and must have looked as horrified as I was, as the waiter figured out exactly what my silent reaction meant, without me saying anything--this was one of the rare times in my life that I've ever been rendered SPEECHLESS--and he said something like, omg, was that not how you wanted it? I didn't speak, just remained frozen in horror with this expression: . "Because I can take it away and bring you one with nothing on it, just butter and salt as a side" ...again, my reaction stayed a steady: He, bless his heart, wisked it away and brought me a plain sweet potato, which I promptly doused in BUTTAH and SALT, as God intended!

"If you are on one of Dr. D's diets and it isn't joyful, you aren't doing it right."- moi

I think by this time, after all the flak he has gotten about this recipe, I would be very reluctant to post another one if I were GCG! Y'all, he didn't even make up this recipe!! I do not like things very sweet at all unless it is fruit, but a whiff of sweetener on some sweet potatoes (not all) is just fine with me. When I look at the amount of sweetener in some recipes even on this site, I get bugeyed! It is nothing to see one with a half cup or more of some type of sugar. Anyhow, I don't think GCG is losing any sleep over the ribbing, he just does his thing and comes out being one of the best cooks around!

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." -- Benjamin Franklin